SWB 911R...the beginning

[speedo]

The right rear turn signal housing bottom side got repaired while the car was upside down. Now that the car is rightside up ...I see that sheet metal on the quarter panel above the turn signal housing is weak.
There is a hole at the rear corner, and perforations 5-6 inches away close to the top edge of the housing.
Rather than splice two small patches in, (because the steel in between the weak areas is probably also weakened) I will replace the entire area.Here is my donor piece already cleaned up
Time to open up the patient and see how much metal I will need to cut away...it gets worse before it gets better
...and worse

[speedo]

The steel in the cavity is surface rusted so that will need to be treated before closing back up. There is always this uncomfortable feeling when you have hacked apart your car to fix it...and you get the sinking feeling that ....this isn't going to work....haven't had the feeling just yet.
Here is the replacement piece getting doctored and ready to fit and weld

The area cleaned and prepped before closing
Lets see how things fit upI was tempted to try and push out the small impression to the right in the picture, but there is no room to work inside the quarter panel above the turn signal housing, so instead of making a mess by hammering it out, I will fill it later.
Not perfect...but close. More trimming needed

[speedo]

Fitted,and clamped for tacking
Its not moving now
Time to make the bead go away

Almost there
A little more
I think we are there...there are some slightly low areas in the butt weld from heat, although I varied my "stitching" to avoid this...that will get a little filler. Better low than high. Corner came out well too
Lets see how the tailight housing fits...nice
Primed and finished

[speedo]

I have a rather large Setrab cooler that I had planned to use with the 2.7 or 2.7RS motor.
I 'm not sure if this is going to fit under the front fender...
Even though I'm going to run fiberglass and it hasn't arrived yet, I need to check fitment.
So the steel fender( for sale in case you need a pair)
Gets temporarily bolted back up
There is not enough room to mount the cooler in here with 90 degree oil line fittings .
The only way this will work is to run straight fittings through the body into the trunk, the run them along the inner fender wall and back trough the fender wall to drop down along the rockers. Decision time...smaller cooler that can use 90 degree fittings and keep the oil lines inside the fender, or keep the large cooler and run the lines into the trunk...I might use this as an opportunity to install a Peterson oil filter in the front trunk, or maybe that would be where I mount the 72 oil filter console...hmmm.

[arrivederci]

Looking good Lars. The stuff you have laying around your garage and what you accomplish with it never ceases to amaze (as I quickly run out to my garage to make sure my setrab is still there).

Call me tomorrow...got lots to catch up on.

[Shaun @ Tru6]

This is truly amazing work!

For your sheetmetal work, can you please post your welder make and model as well as speed and voltage settings and wire type you are using? I'm still very much a novice and I've got a little stitching on my E to do and am also considering seam welding much of the tub while it's apart.

[speedo]

When I cut away the quarter panels to do the inner rockers and outer rockers...this is what I was left with....

Here are the remainders of the quarter panels that need to be cleaned up and prepped for replacement

Here is a previous repare that used a lot of bondo

It will get worse....before it gets better....

[911SC520]

wow........subscribed

[speedo]

Yesterday the fiberglass arrived. We ordered (five of us) a bulk shipment...to save on shipping. I have new fenders with deleted gas flap and turnsignal / horn housings, rear split lid, front and rear bumpers.


I haven't decided yet on the size of the oil cooler, or whether or not to use the larger cooler and tuck the lines in the trunk and then return them back to the inner fender well. I'll fit the fiberglass fender and front bumper temporarily to determine how much room I have to work with. Anybody want to swap a carrera cooler or 44 row mocal for this brand new Setrab?

[speedo]

I received the gas tank today...what a packaging job...I had to laugh. I need to post a thanks to this guy in the tech forum...went WAY out of his way to get this packaged and shipped...look at this box job

looks like how you would ship a baby elephant. I figured that all the front suspension replacement would be "dead on" but the only way to find out...
Fits perfectly. I will remove and patch the original filler neck and after centering the filler hole in my hood, I'll locate where the centerfill is supposed to go (through the hood to the tank...and weld up the 4" extension. Here is the mockup without the 4" neck

[mountain14er]

Outstanding work and a fun project to watch. If you're still looking for a foster home for the rotisserie when you're done with it, let me know.

gregorybensen at hotmail.com

[SCWDP911]

Holy cow! You really are a magician dude. I may have to stop reading this thread as it makes me feel so inferior and jealous at the same time. Yesterday, someone posted a thread about "someone please save this" about a blue longhood on ebay that was a rustbucket. I immediately thought of you... not sure if that is good or bad...

[trader220]

Subscribed... nice thread

[911boost]

Wow, hey I work over in Interlocken by Flat Irons, if you ever need a helping hand, or just want to show off your work, I'd love to swing by and see it in person...

Bill

[Walko]

This looks like one interesting project

Michael

[speedo]

I wanted to see how the new fenders fit...so I bolted them up temporarily. I also wanted to check the fit with the new outer rockers, and the inner fender wings.

So far things are looking pretty good.
Note the gas flap delete...
And the turn signal horn delete...

I'll have to go back and open up the horn opening per R specs.
I realize that it is premature to start fitting the fenders...actually I should be closing up the rear quarter panel to outer rocker sections that I removed to replace the rockers...I just don't feel motivated to attack that today...but...

[speedo]

I talked with Grady this week about the oil system and decided to try to make the larger Setrab work. I will need to bring the oil lines into the trunk and then they will travel along the inner fender wall and exit the trunk back into the wheel well aft of the shock tower.
With the right side fender mounted up, I decided to take another look at how tight the Setrab fit really was.
This will work. The bigger cooler means lower engine temps. I have never seen oil lines enter the trunk area and leave again... In a race car they will usually enter the cockpit through the passenger footwell and run along the floor exiting at the passenger rear bulkhead. As this is street car (for now), I don't want oil lines in the passenger compartment. I measure for the 1 1/2" holes to enter the trunk area
And destroy my holesaw in the process...I contemplated trying to sharpen it in between holes...but just decided to use my dremil to finish the job. Hole one
and two

[speedo]

Pretty well in fact. The only way to get this thing to fit outside of running the fittings inside the car, was to angle it back about 15-20 degreesThank God for coat hanger...

Looks ok from the front...as I will be running H4s, the horn grill and fog light openings are the source of direct flow
And this will be nicely positioned. I now need to make the brackets. Instead of bolting the cooler directly to the inner fender, I want to create reinforced mounts that use rubber bushings to hold the cooler away from the inner fender.
These need to be welded up and fit exactly. The first two are the top and bottom mounts...

Once the cooler is "suspended"using the top and bottom brackets, I will need to create something to triangulate the outer edges of the cooler, without blocking air flow to the cooler, or interfere with the headlight bucket.

[speedo]

...are a little more complicated.
I needed to fit these to the cooler
Then make a central brace that will triangulate these to the body in front of the cooler, but behind the headlight bucket. On steel fendered cars, this mount could connect with the back side of the headlight bucket. As my fenders are fiberglass, this needs to be self supporting. I start with the pieces...
...and then weld to fit
...and fit to cooler

[speedo]

I took flat 1x1/8" stock and 3/4 " angle and drilled a hole for the #10 mm bolt and welded it from behind.
Positioned and clamped
Did I mention the "cut and fit X 3"...I don't dare weld anything beyond a "tack" before I am sure that everything fits. Supports welded in place and everything fits
The triangulated bracket installed with rubber bushings to isolate the cooler from the inner fender
Here is the view from the trunk